Before Dago Saenz hit the basketball court at the 2017 Youth Parapan American Games, he had to learn parts of a language.
Saenz, who was born in Colombia and can speak fluent Spanish, is used to speaking English when playing for the Illinois men’s wheelchair basketball team. When he joined the Colo...

Wheelchair basketball player Spencer Heslop’s father paced from left to right.
Arms crossed.
Hands in his pockets.
Back to arms crossed.
Hislop's mother — also wearing a No. 24 jersey — was on the other side of bleachers.
As Heslop’s dad looked antsy in the purple stands at the University...

The members of the Illinois women’s wheelchair basketball team are starting to echo each other as the playoffs approach.
“Play hard,” Erica Wilson and Kaitlyn Eaton said. “Finish the season strong.”
Illinois enters the National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament as the No. 4 seed in a br...

Illinois men’s wheelchair basketball’s Mak Nong participated in a shootaround Monday morning when he heard teammate Mike Mitchell tell a quick-witted joke.
“Mike is one of those guys that’s going to go out of control at a circus,” Nong said.
Cracking jokes is natural for Mitchell, a junio...

Ryan Neiswender entered his senior year with confidence.
Now, he is leaving with even more.
“We’re peaking at the right time, which is what’s important,” Neiswender said. “I don’t think our mindset or thought process of what we can achieve has changed.”
The Illinois men’s wheelchair...

Illinois men's wheelchair basketball head coach Matt Buchi has been emphasizing mental toughness since Illinois’ 1-2 finish at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania two weekends ago.
After the Illini shot below 35 percent in the first half of two of its three games, Buchi wants the team to start...

The Illinois men's wheelchair basketball team has won five of its last seven games and is coming off a tournament in which it beat the experienced Milwaukee Bucks for the first time this season.
Illini head coach Matt Buchi will look to carry their momentum to an intercollegiate tournament this weekend...

Head coach Matt Buchi looked over to his left and pulled out an imaginary bow from his back.
He aimed it at Patrick Tomic, who was sitting on the opposite side of the bench, and pulled back his right arm in the direction of Tomic. Tomic, then playing off the fun, then fell back and flailed on ...

Illinois men's wheelchair basketball's Patrick Tomic is getting taller just in time to face a 6-foot opponent on the court.
Tomic, an average-sized guard/forward, started using a new wheelchair last month, and he said it sits higher than his previous chair.
“Now that I’m taller and can actually...

With senior Ryan Neiswender on the court, the Illinois men’s wheelchair basketball is full of aggression.
When Neiswender is not driving to the rim, he will habitually roll to the left or right wing to set up a pick and roll with junior Spencer Heslop. The play often leads to an assist to Heslop...

After the Illinois men’s wheelchair basketball team defeated Southwestern Minnesota State University, the Illini scrambled to the other side of the gym to watch rival Wisconsin-Whitewater play Missouri.
Illinois saw the last five minutes of the game between Whitewater and Mizzou. The game foreshadowed...

The hoop can be a problematic thing in basketball. But in wheelchair basketball, so can the court.
The courts became a factor in the Illinois wheelchair basketball teams’ games over the weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The team competed in a series of games on the basketball...